Does it make you feel all warm & fuzzy?

Back in January, I teamed up with Amanda Auer of In The Now and Cathy Olson of Love Invites to create a tablescape for UE’s design challenge. The “challenge” stipulated that our tablescape had to have either paper or an industrial material as a primary component of the design.

Brick placemats? Genius.

I have to say, Amanda is a genius. She came up with the brilliant concept of using bricks (um, industrial material? I think so!) as the place mats, to hold up a plexiglass fireplace centerpiece (can we say “industrial material” again?), and as a backdrop for plexiglass place cards and menus.

I had never seen anything like this ever before. Trend-setting much?

If you’re a wedding-blog reader, you may have already seen these photos in their feature on Junebug Weddings. It was a great feature and I was so pleased with the image choices. But I couldn’t resist sharing a few more.

The varying-sized bottles have a vintage milk-bottle silhouette. I filled them with different types of berries: unripe blackberries, seeded eucalyptus, berzillia berries and privet berries.

The concept for the table was “modern warmth.” We wanted to create modern silhouettes combined with a feeling of “cozy.” The faux bois plates and etched plexiglass fireplace did a good job of taking “cozy” elements and giving them a modern twist.

The flatwear cozies were hand-knit by Rachel, a member of Amanda’s team. They DEFINITELY give me the warm fuzzies!

At each place setting, a favor: a mini gravy boat filled with berries.

Wouldn’t you love to be the recipient of such a favor? I know I would!

I love this picture! The juxtaposition of the warm & cozy table in such a gritty urban setting equals perfection!!!

A few weeks ago, my Mum came out to Los Angeles for a brief visit. While she was here, we decided to host a little picnic tea party. Mum works with a lot of SoCal wedding vendors, remotely, and she really wanted to meet some of those people in person.

You may have seen Bonnie Tsang’s ethereal photos from the picnic party over on Oh Joy!’s blog earlier today… here are a few more details from the day!

We settled on “Spring has Sprung” as our theme:
so the flowers were seasonal and color-saturated!

They were also incredibly fragrant. Hyacinth, tulips, ranunculus, spray roses, daffodils, paper whites, muscari, jasmine vine and maidenhair fern.

Mum calligraphed the invitations sitting at my desk in my living room. Simple and perfect.

Our favor baskets held floral-scented shower gels and mini spring flower nosegays, tagged (naturally) with more of Mum’s fab calligraphy.

Spring has Sprung!

Literary Bohemian.

I’m really not a huge fan of the color pink. I blame this on my mother, who adores pink. She adores it so much that I slept in pink bedrooms until I was thirteen years old. At thirteen, I managed to lay claim to a closet-sized bedroom on the third floor of the parental home: and for some reason, my mother actually permitted me to paint the room. I was such a rebel. I painted it periwinkle blue, and stamped gold stars onto the white ceiling.

As the oldest of eight children, I had many responsibilities… but there were a few perks, too. Apart from my brother Gabe, who was the only boy in the family for many years- I was the only sibling who got her own room.

All that has changed and my three young siblings still at home have their own bedrooms now, in fact most of them have two bedrooms all to themselves since their parents are divorced and living in different states. Divorce is a hard thing for families, but I have to admit I used to fantasize about that possiblitilty when I was young. I thought for sure that everything in my life would be better if my Mum and I could go live somewhere together, just the two of us.

I was so naiive. How did I not think of the possibility that I would then have to live in a completely pink house? Because that would have been inevitable…

Ah, pink! Like I said, I’m not a huge fan. But every once in a while, I find myself liking it. Really liking it. This is one of those rare cases. Don’t tell.

But right now, I like this pink.

The shades of burgundy and wine help… a lot.

And grey succulents. Well, succulents always help, don’t they?

Texture helps, too. Pink walls probably wouldn’t upset me so much if they weren’t so flat. And pink.

But this pink, it’s okay with me.

In fact, I’m down with pink. At least for today.

This photo by Desi Baytan.

I know I shared photos of this tablescape + bouquet yesterday, but today I received fresh images from Richelle Dante. I absolutely love Richelle’s work and I was just thrilled when she agreed to come shoot for me. Feast your eyes on this pretty overload… every artistic creation looks better through the lens of a talented photographer!

Details, details.

Textures galore.

Too much pretty.

Much thanks to Richelle Dante.

This tablescape didn’t turn out exactly the way I’d envisioned it, but sometimes “set-backs” make for an even better finished project. All that moss and those spring garden flowers… it’s so unexpected and wonderful in the middle of a table. Like a secret garden is unexpected and wonderful. I want a secret garden someday. In a major way.

A wooden box and three glass vases, completely covered in sheets of moss. Love.

Sweet peas, freesia, delphinium, stock, astilbe, scented geranium… and those GORGEOUS not-quite-ripe blackberries. Yum.

And here’s another of Desi’s shots of the accompanying bouquet!